Private eye novels and movies were the rage in the mid 1900s. The confident and hard boiled Philip Marlowe epitomizes this genre. The Microgaming slot game Private Eye has brought this era to the reels with symbols carefully chosen to represent that period. The Telephone with the rotary dial, the Box Camera, the Car with the 1950s body and the old style Pistol are examples of this. The other symbols are thematic as well and recreate the life style of the private eye associated with crime. These include Handcuffs, Chalk Mark around the corpse, Cash and Whisky, Suspect and redhead Girl. The Private Eye Badge is the wild symbol and the Private Eye himself is the scatter symbol. The Free Spins symbol is the Newspaper Boy selling the extra edition with the latest crime news. The Bonus symbol is a set of clues under a magnifying glass. Both these symbols activate features linked to their content.

Many of the symbols have appropriate animations. The pistol fires a few shots with bang noises. The dial on the telephones rotates as if a number is being dialed. Someone picks up the whisky and the cash. The best animation is in the Private Eye symbol, where the private eye walks with a swagger typical of his ilk. Read Full Review

Private Eye is a 243 ways to win slot game. Three or more like symbols appearing from left to right but in any position on the reels results in payouts. Players can wager up to ten coins per payline. The total bet is obtained by multiplying the selected number by 25, because all 243 paylines are enabled by default. The coin size varies from 0.01 to 0.25.

As is usual with video slots Private Eye has a free spins feature. It is triggered when the Newspaper Boy symbol appears on reels 3, 4 and 5. The free spins parameters are chosen through a random selection process. A newspaper rack with three rows is displayed. Selecting a newspaper on the first row reveals up to 20 free spins. Selecting a newspaper on the second row reveals a multiplier up to 4 times. Selecting a newspaper on the third row reveals a cash award. The free spins cannot be retriggered. The maximum win possible in this free spins feature is 100,000 coins.

Solve the Case bonus feature is one of the best thematic bonus games on the second screen. This bonus game is played over two levels, the first of which is the Clue Bonus. There are a number of clues lying on a table and the player has to keep picking a clue till the telephone rings. As the player picks a clue a record is made in the old fashioned type writer font and the player wins a cash award. Each clue picked by the player is examined under a magnifying glass by a cop sitting at the table. If the clue has a fingerprint mark then the cop informs his senior, who awards the player the credits for all the clues on the table and asks the cop to take him to the second level. In the second level the player has to identify a suspect. If the fingerprint of the identified suspect matches with that on the clue the player wins the top cash award. Otherwise he gets a consolation award.